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CONSCIENCE AND LAW; 



OR 



A DISCUSSION 



OF OUR COMPARATIVE 



RESPONSIBILITY TO HOTAX AXD DIVINE GOVERMriNT: 



AN APPLICATION 



FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW 



BY 
WM. \V. PATTON, 

Pastor of the Fourth Congregational Church, Hartford, Ct. 



PUBLISHED BY 

MARK H. NEWMAN Sc CO., 199 BRO.VDWAY, NEW YORK. 

BROCKETT, FULLER &. CO., lURTFORD. 

S. C. GRIGGS 6c CO., CfflCAGO. 

1850. 



CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 



It was the memorable answer of the Savior to the 
crafty interrogation of those who sought to ensnare 
him respecting the lawfulness of paying tribute to the 
Roman government, "Render therefore unto Ceesar 
the things which are Csesar's, and unto God the things 
that are God's." The Pharisees and Herodians had 
approached him in company as he was engaged in 
public discourse, and proposed a question which was 
so framed that whether an affirmative or negative 
response was given, offence would be taken. There 
were two parties among the Jews at this time, who 
held opposite sentiments with reference to the pro- 
priety of paying tribute to the Roman government. 
The Pharisees contended that Herod, who had been 
set over them as king by the Roman emperor, was 
not a legitimate sovereign according to the Mosaic law, 
and that therefore his authority should not be recog- 
nized by the payment of the tax levied in the name 
of the Roman emperor. The Herodians, on the other 
hand, argued that as the Jews were a conquered 
people, and unable to maintain a government of their 
own according to the original plan, it was their duty 



D CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 

to submit to those who were providentially in power. 
The advocates of these conflicting views, animated by 
a common hatred of the Savior, joined their forces on 
this occasion, in order to bring upon him popular 
odium. Concealing their purpose under a hypocritical 
mask, they commenced with flattering encomiums of 
his integrity and independence, by reason of which 
qualities they professed to believe that he would not 
hesitate in solving their difficulties. These were 
their words: "Master, we know that thou art true, 
and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest 
thou for any man : for thou regardest not the person 
of men." Having made this attempt to inflate vanity 
and to play upon his very virtues to secure their end, 
they propounded in a deferential manner the all- 
important question : "Tell us therefore, What thinkest 
thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Csesar, or not?" 
Caesar was the name which was adopted by the em- 
perors of Rome after the time of Julius Csesar, as an 
imperial title, in the same manner that the successive 
monarchs of Egypt called themselves Pharaoh. They 
were not successful, however, in deceiving the Savior; 
for he instantly read their hearts, and said, "Why 
tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?" Without hesitation or 
perplexity he told them to show him the tribute 
money : upon which they brought him a coin called 
a denarius, equal in value to fourteen cents of our 
currency, having the head and name of the Roman 
emperor stamped upon it. He then inquired, " Whose 
is this image and superscription?" to which they re- 



CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 7 

plied, "Caesar's." After this declaration, the Savior 
uttered the words quoted above, "Render therefore 
unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's ; and unto 
God the things that are God's." This was an answer 
which applied admirably to both the parties who had 
appealed to him. As the Pharisees, by admitting that 
the coin of the country was Roman, had acknowledged 
that they were actually subject to that power, he bids 
them render to the emperor and those who represented 
his authority, the obedience which was due to rulers, 
and not to think that religion exempted them from 
civil obligations. On the other hand he directs the 
Herodians, who were devoted to the interests of Herod 
and were mere politicians, claiming every thing for 
the government and making the requirements of the 
divine law a nullity, to remember their responsibility 
to God, and not to imagine that the human statute- 
book was paramount to the Bible. In this way Jesus 
utterly foiled the attack of his enemies, while he 
made known their duty, and that, too, in so compre- 
hensive a manner as to leave no deficiency in his 
statement, no opportunity to derive from it limited, 
and therefore practically false views. It is my pur- 
pose, in the spirit of the Great Teacher, to discuss 
our comparative responsibility to human and divine 
government. 

I call attention to this subject for two reasons: 
first, because it has an application in our own country 
at the present time, and if truth is ever to be pre- 
sented, it is when men need it for their practical 



8 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 

guidance in the affairs of life ; and secondly, because 
a difference of opinion exists with regard to the proper 
solution of the difficulties involved. It is written in 
the book of Mai achi, "The priest's lips should keep 
knowledge, and they .should seek the law at his 
mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts." 
If this was true of the priest under the old dispensa- 
tion, when comparatively little instruction was pro- 
vided for the people, much more will it apply to the 
Christian minister, whose chief work it is to commu- 
nicate knowledge upon all moral and religious duties 
connected with the various relations which men sus- 
tain to one another and to God. It is his duty to 
make the people intelligent with reference to ethical, 
as well as doctrinal points ; and while he has no right 
to dictate the belief of others authoritatively, after the 
custom of the Romish church, he should freely express 
his own views, with the reasons on which they are 
based, that he may furnish them with the means of 
arriving at a correct conclusion. With respect to the 
subject before us, good men have differed in judgment, 
and although I cannot but regard the principles involved 
as easily explicable, and the application also, as for 
the most part, plain, still, I am not disposed to urge 
my opinions in an immodest and overbearing man- 
ner. Let us reason dispassionately, candidly, and 
thoroughly, desiring above all to ascertain the will of 
God. In order to set forth the truth in the clearest 
and most convincing manner, I shall state it in a 
series of propositions. 



CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 9 

I. Human government must be supported in the 
exercise of all its rightful functions. — Though this 
position may not be questioned, still, as it is funda- 
mental in its nature, and is the basis of subsequent 
reasoning, it needs to be well established. In support 
of it, therefore, let it be considered, 

1. That civil government is a divine institution. 
By this, it is not meant that a particular form of it 
has been made obligatory by divine command, such 
as monarchy, oligarchy, or republicanism ; and much 
less, that any particular person, family, or race, has 
a perpetual right to supreme power. What has been 
called the "divine right of kings" is utterly inde- 
fensible, both in its general doctrine and in its par- 
ticular application. God has in no manner whatever 
declared that every nation shall be governed by a 
king ; neither by assertion or implication in his written 
word, nor by the necessity of the position in which he 
has placed us: while many facts concur to prove 
that, in a certain stage of national intelligence and 
virtue, a monarchy is both needless and injurious. 
But the doctrine of the divine right of government is a 
very different matter, and teaches that all rightful 
civil power, whatever may be the form under which 
it is exercised, emanates from God. It is sometimes 
said by ardent republicans that the people are the 
source of power, and the Declaration of Independence 
declares that "governments derive their just power 
from the consent of the governed ;" but such expres- 
sions, on the lips of careful thinkers, can only mean 



10 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 

that the legitimacy of any form of government, or of 
the rule of any individual sovereign, depends upon 
the express or implied consent of those for whose 
welfare the government is professedly instituted and 
administered. The doctrine that government rests 
upon a social compact, by which the individuals 
composing a nation agree to surrender a part of their 
natural liberty to secure the protection of a central 
power, is a mere theory, unsustained by fact, and if 
not originally advanced by infidels, has certainly been 
eagerly embraced and propagated by them, as subser- 
vient to their ends. However ingenious it may be in 
some of its speculations, it must be an implied, and 
not a historical fact, and furnishes no safe and suffi- 
cient basis for the authority of government ; since it is 
not in the rightful power of any number of men, of their 
own mere will, to make a compact which shall bind 
nie, I not consenting thereto, or even being consulted ; 
and since even a consent on my part might afterwards 
be witiidrawn. Such a theory leaves government 
witliout a sanction that can bind the conscience of 
every inhabitant. On the other hand, if we admit 
that government is of divine appointment, that God 
intended that it should be instituted, and has made it 
necessary for us, conferring his own authority upon 
it to the furtherance of its legitimate ends, we place it 
upon a satisfactory and immovable basis. There are 
three institutions of divine origin, upon the main- 
tenance of which human welfare depends ; the family, 
the church, and the state. These all rest upon the 



CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 11 

same foundation, and are equally necessary and obli- 
gatory. 

That this is the true view of the state, is evident in 
the first place from the nature which God has given 
to man, and the circumstances in which he has placed 
him. God has conferred upon us a social nature, and 
made it necessary to our highest development and 
happiness that we should dwell in communities. 
Earth was not created to be a habitation of hermits 
and eremites. A solitary condition was never pre- 
scribed as man's lot. Its inevitable tendency is to 
barbarism. The arts and sciences, education and 
religion, all that constitutes civilization and refine- 
ment, depend upon social life. The race owes its 
past progress to this cause, and in proportion as an 
approach has been made to individual isolation, na- 
tions and tribes have degenerated to the savage state. 
Thus all history, observation, and consciousness attest 
the fact, that our constitutional tendencies lead us to 
congregate in communities for the enjoyment of social 
intercourse, and that our highest physical, intellectual, 
and moral welfare, demands such an arrangement. 
But in order to secure these advantages, civil govern- 
ment is essential, on the ground of the evils inevitably 
arising from human ignorance and depravity. To 
maintain order; to define, establish, and protect ina- 
lienable rights ; to repress and punish crime ; and to 
encourage and assist industry, education, and virtue; 
there must be a central and presiding power, whose 
authority shall be acknowledged by all. God has 



12 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 

made civil government an indispensable condition of 
our existence on the earth, as an intelligent, virtuous, 
and happy race. It is a prime want of our nature, as 
plainly indicated as any other pertaining to body or 
mind. Instead of depending on a voluntary compact, 
it is essential to our existence with the faculties and 
in the position which God has assigned. We might 
as well assert that men eat and drink by reason of a 
social compact. God made us to live under a govern- 
ment, as much as to live on the earth surrounded by 
an atmosphere. Hence, government has the sanction 
of the voice of God, speaking through the very con- 
stitution of the race. 

But besides this expression of his will, which has 
led all nations to organize themselves politically in 
some way, however rude, God has clearly asserted 
the truth for which I contend, on the pages of the 
Bible. The propriety, the necessity, and the authority 
of government, is implied and declared from the 
beginning to the end of the Word of God. When the 
race was established a second time, in the family of 
Noah, the precept which was given with reference to 
the capital punishment of murderers, was, in fact, an 
implication and establishment of civil authority; by 
which, in the name and by the direction of God, to 
whom all lives belong, the life of the murderer was 
to be taken as the due punishment of his aggravated 
crime. Thus men were given to understand that 
human government is in reality, as an institution, 
part of the divine government — one way in which 



CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 13 

God seeks to control, reward, and punish mankind, 
accordinor to their individual deserts. This all- 
important fact was further declared and illustrated, 
when God set up the Jewish nation, and established 
the theocracy, under a code of his own enactment; 
claiming that he was the true king, the fountain of 
authority, and that the various rulers of different 
grades were his representatives. Thus the idea of 
law was made sacred ; God incarnating himself, as it 
were, in human government, to give it majesty and 
authority. Hence, throughout the Old Testament, 
rulers are declared to be the servants or executive 
officers of Jehovah. When we come to the doctrine 
of the New Testament, we find it uttering the same 
truth, in the most explicit form, establishing the state 
upon the appointment of God. Paul, when alluding 
to the matter in a practical way, said, "Let every 
soul be subject unto the higher powers; for there is 
no power but of God : the powers that be are ordained 
of God. Whosoever, therefore, resisteth the power, 

resisteth the ordinance of God He is the 

minister of God to thee for good he is the 

minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon 
him that doeth evil for they are God's minis- 
ters, attending continually upon this very thing." 

If, then, civil government be a divine institution, 
ordained for the promotion of human welfare in the 
conservation of universal rights and the encourage- 
ment of knowledge, industry, and virtue, it ought to 
be sustained in the exercise of all its rightful func- 



14 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 

tions, by which it seeks to secure its lawful and 
prescribed end. To rebel against it in such circum- 
stances, to deny or oppose its authority, to evade the 
duties which it imposes, is to disobey God as well as 
man. As long as a ruler is discharging his official 
duties for the purposes contemplated by God in the 
institution of government, so long he is God's minister 
and representative, and should be reverenced and 
obeyed accordingly. This should be done, not from 
fear of the consequences of rebellion, nor from mere 
worldly wisdom, prudence and policy, but under a 
sense of moral obligation, and from a love of right. 
Flence Paul wrote, in the same connection before 
quoted, and as an inference from his previous declar- 
ation, " Wherefore ye must needs be subject not only 
for wrath, but also for conscience sake," The duty 
of obedience, and of hearty support in every appro- 
priate form, is thus clearly deducible from the divine 
origin of the state. 

2. This duty may likewise be inferred from the 
specific precepts of Scripture. Whatever may be the 
origin of the state, and the basis of its authority ; 
whether the preceding views are reasonable and 
scriptural, or the contrary ; nothing can be more plain 
than that for some reason, sufficient in the divine mind, 
we are commanded to sustain rulers in the discharge 
of their proper duties. What other meaning can be 
put upon the injunction of the Savior? "Render 
therefore unto Ceesar the things which are Coesar's." 
Here is a distinct recognition of the fact, that some 



CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 15 

tilings are properly Caesar's; or in other words, that 
there are duties which we owe to the State, and to 
whomsoever represents it, whether emperor, king, or 
president in the highest office, or sheriff, constable or 
tax<iatherer, in the lowest. Caesar, that is the ruler for 
the time being, must be obeyed in all matters which 
are properly under his control. Paul is uniformly 
very explicit. "Let every soul be subject unto the 
higher powers. Render therefore to all their dues : 
tribute to whom tribute is due ; custom to whom 
custom ; fear to whom fear ; honor to whom honor." 
To Titus he wrote with reference to his duty to those 
who attended upon his ministry, that he should do 
precisely what I am now attempting. "Put them in 
mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey 
magistrates." Peter expresses the same view. "Sub- 
mit yourselves to every ordinance of man, for the 
Lord's sake : whether it be to the king as supreme ; 
or unto governors as unto them that are sent by him, 
for the punishment of evil doers, and for the praise of 
them that do well. For so is the will of God, that 
with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance 
of foolish men." Subsequently he places two duties 
in a very significant juxtaposition, saying, "Fear God : 
honor the king." In these and similar passages, refer- 
ence is made to kings, not as declaring a monarchical 
form of government to be obligatory, but using them 
as representatives of the idea and fact of government, 
as the embodiment for the time being of the state. 
No candid reader of the Bible can doubt, that it strictly 



16 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 

enjoins obedience to magistrates in the exercise of 
their legitimate functions. 

3. This view receives additional confirmation from 
the example of Christ, and the apostles. They uni- 
formly respected civil government, and gave it their 
cordial support. Christ conformed to the regulation 
which required the Jews to contribute annually for 
the support of the temple, and wrought a miracle in 
order to furnish the money necessary to pay the quota 
of Peter and himself. He was careful not to infringe 
the laws ; so that when the Jews sought to accuse him 
before the Roman governor, they were forced to resort 
to falsehood and perjury, and Pilate acquitted him of 
every charge, pronouncing him an innocent man. The 
apostles followed in his footsteps, and were ever peace- 
ful citizens. Paul manifested the spirit and character 
of the whole body, when he said to Festus, "Neither 
against the laws of the Jews, neither against the 
temple, nor yet against Caesar, have I offended any- 
thing at all . . , For if I be an offender, or have com- 
mitted any thing worthy of death, I refuse not to die." 
Thus they practised as they preached. 

4. I will only add on this point that the necessity 
of the case drives us to the same conclusion. No 
other course is left to us but the support of govern- 
ment in the exercise of its appropriate power, unless we 
prefer the horrors of anarchy. All experience proves 
that it is not too strong a declaration to make, that the 
worst government is better than none. When in 
consequence of rebellion, or other causes, a nation or 



CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 17 

community has been left without the protection of law, 
the most frightful disorders, immoralities, and crimes 
have prevailed, till the people were ready to welcome 
even a despotism rather than continue under lawless 
misrule. Such is human depravity that nothing but 
the restraints of law prevent vast numbers from grati- 
fying their personal wishes at the expense of the 
happiness and rights of their fellow-men. There is 
far less principle in the world than is often supposed. 
Custom and fear of legal consequences are much more 
powerful than conscience in producing current 
morality. Take away government, and the only law 
would be that of physical force and depraved cunning. 
Selfishness would display itself in full proportion, and 
the results of a violent conflict of interests would soon 
be apparent. Property, liberty, and life, would be 
destitute of all security, mutual confidence would be 
destroyed, society would be an impossibility, and earth 
would quickly become a hell. That which now holds 
us together as nations, and communities, and makes 
happiness possible, is law. This is so obvious, and 
its indispensability to united action is so pressingly 
evident, that even those who renounce allegiance to 
human governments, are forced to construct one for 
themselves. Thus among thieves, robbers, and pirates, 
we find regular organizations, with laws, officers, 
subjects, and severe penalties. Without strict regula- 
tions they could not hold together a single day. As 
law tends to harmony and unity, so anarchy tends to 
discord and separation, driving men asunder, making 
2 



18 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 

them the objects of fear and suspicion to each other, 
and producing universal enmity. I allude to these 
facts in this connection, not to prove the divine origin 
of government, as seen in the constitution of the race, 
for that was discussed at the beginning ; but to show- 
that whatever may be the truth on that point, civil 
law must be sustained from the very necessity of the 
case, whether God made us, or we are the offspring of 
chance; whether he designed us to dwell under 
government, or placed us here irrespective of such a 
purpose. A stern, inexorable necessity is upon us to 
support the state in its rightful action, to obey and 
sustain the laws in their legitimate application. We 
must do it or allow all rights to be subverted, all inter- 
ests to perish. The choice, so far as there is one, is 
between prosperity and ruin; between the liberty of 
virtue and the despotism of vice. 

As the subject is one of great importance, permit 
me before proceeding to the statement and defence of 
two additional propositions, to draw the reader's atten- 
tion for a moment, to three suggestions which grow 
out of the topic which has been briefly elucidated. 

1. We may infer the duty of paying all customs 
and taxes legally imposed for the support of govern- 
ment. Government cannot be carried on without 
incurring expense. The legislative, executive, and 
judicial departments involve expenditures which are 
regular and inevitable, while numerous other branches 
of public service make frequent and large demands 
upon the treasury. If that be empty, the wheels of 



CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 19 

state must stop. It is reasonable that those who enjoy 
the protection of government in life, liberty and prop- 
erty, should bear the pecuniary burdens of its support, 
which should be apportioned to indivduals upon prin- 
ciples of justice and impartiality ; though an equitable 
adjustment of this matter is of practical difficulty. It 
belongs to the legislative functions of government to 
prescribe the manner in which the needful money 
shall be raised ; whether by duties on imports, which 
is the plan of our Federal government, or by direct 
taxation, which is the better plan, politically and 
morally, of .our State governments. Whichever is 
adopted, the people should submit while it is in force, 
and neither forcibly resist, nor secretly evade it. The 
sum demanded in either way is a just debt, owed to 
the state for the advantages enjoyed under the protec- 
tion of its laws, and should be cheerfully and promptly 
paid. All refusal or evasion of payment is really 
dishonesty and theft, proving the person to be a bad 
citizen, and a mean man. The Bible speaks specifi- 
cally on this point, "For this cause pay ye tribute 
also ; for they are God's ministers, attending contin- 
ually upon this very thing. Render therefore to all 
their dues : tribute to whom tribute is due ; custom to 
whom custom." The Bible therefore condemns all 
smuggling, by which dutiable articles of greater or 
less value are introduced secretly into the country 
without the payment of duty. This species of fraud 
is practised not only by merchants, but also by trav- 
elers, who think it no harm to rob the government on 



20 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 

a small scale. But the nature of fraud is the same on 
every scale, and the man who would take the lawful 
duty previous to its arrival at the treasury, would not 
hesitate to take it after its arrival, if it could be done 
with equal facility and security. The same is true 
with reference to the payment of taxes : he who would 
withhold a just tax, would plunder an equal sum from 
the treasury, if it could be done with impunity. There 
is a vast amount of iniquity practised, even by pro- 
fessors of religion, in undervaluing property to the 
assessors, in concealing it from their knowledge, or in 
transferring it nominally to other persons. No honor- 
able man, to say nothing of Christian principle, will 
wish to escape the expenses which devolve upon him 
for the support of government, any more than he will 
wish to repudiate a debt for food or clothing ; especially 
in this land, where taxes are comparatively light, and 
all are permitted to exercise political power. 

2. Illegal proceedings for the punishment of alleged 
crime are worthy of the heaviest condemnation. Such 
acts have obtained the name of Lynch law. They 
generally occur amid extreme excitement, and are 
justified on the ground of the tardiness and uncertainty 
of the regular proceedings of the courts. But the 
excuse is a worthless one. It is far better that a 
criminal should occasionally escape deserved punish- 
ment, than that he should receive it in an illegal way, 
which prostrates law, and destroys all the safeguards 
of a community. When a gross crime has been 
committed, there is indeed a strong provocation to 



CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 21 

administer summary justice to the supposed offender. 
But "summary proceedings" are seldom wise or 
right. They breathe passionate revenge rather than a 
spirit of justice ; they are liable to punish the innocent 
instead of the guilty ; they are usually excessive in 
their penalties ; and they lead to the grossest abuses 
and the wildest disorder. To-day they bring deserved 
suffering upon the immoral, or the propagators of 
error; but to-morrow, at the bidding of prejudice or 
self-interest, they may be turned against the moral, and 
the advocates of truth. They are a virtual overthrow 
of law, even while pretending to inflict merited punish- 
ment, and are therefore as great an enormity as any 
which they seek to suppress. The very tardiness of 
ordinary legal procedure has its advantages as well 
as its evils. It allows passion to subside, favors can- 
dor and impartiality, secures thoroughness of investi- 
gation, guards with due caution the rights of the 
accused, and thus promotes the ends of justice. 
Lynch law is not the representative of the divine 
authority, but of human wrath ; and instead of being 
conservative of order, is but one remove from anarchy. 
3. Whoever violates wholesome law is the enemy 
of God and man, and also the foe of his own true 
interest. Law, as the embodiment of justice, is the 
friend and protector of all, and hence deserves uni- 
versal honor and obedience. To violate it, is to strike 
a blow at the common welfare, and to evince a 
disregard of the general good. The law breaker is 
in such a case arrayed against the whole community j 



22 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 

for he has endeavored to prostrate that which consti- 
tutes its sole defence. He is therefore to be regarded 
and treated as a public enemy, and his evil deeds 
should be visited with appropriate punishment by the 
appointed officers. It matters not what the law may 
be — whether it prohibit murder or theft, gambling or 
the sale of liquor — if it be within the just powers of 
those who enacted it, the violator should be considered 
and dealt with as a criminal. It is astonishing how 
men claim to be good citizens, and are regarded 
as such by others, and even elevated to office, when 
they trample upon the just laws of the community, by 
the unlicensed sale of liquor and by similarly illegal 
practices ! Such individuals, aside from the wicked- 
ness of their traffic, are actually criminals, deserving 
of reprobation and punishment for despising and 
breaking the laws of the State, and thus making war 
upon the welfare of the community. 

Besides, whoever refuses to support government in 
the exercise of rightful functions, commits a suicidal 
act, since he weakens that which protects him as well 
as others. If he may violate one precept to suit his 
convenience, another man may violate a second on a 
similar inducement ; and still another, a third ; and 
thus the defence which is erected around his rights 
may be thrown down for the selfish ends of his neigh- 
bor. It is bad policy to pursue a course which would 
ruin him, if all others did the same ; since he knows 
not when they may choose to avail themselves of the 
same liberty which he claims in his own behalf. 



CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 23 

And then, which is worst of all, the violator of just 
law, arrays himself against God, and incurs the 
deserved penalty for opposing the divine rights and 
the happiness of the universe. God governs his 
intelligent creatures by law, which is the same in 
essence and spirit in all worlds and between all 
beings. Hence whoever sets himself against legiti- 
mate human law, is as unfit to be a subject of the 
divine as of human government ; is as unfit for heaven 
as for earth. He has shown himself to be reckless of 
moral obligation, to be a rebel against just authority, 
to be a contemner of right, to be possessed of a 
depraved and selfish spirit which values and chooses 
personal gratification above the general welfare. God 
will therefore treat him as an enemy of the universe, 
and appoint his place in the prison of despair. 

Let us now proceed with the main discussion, and 
consider a different posture of affairs from that sup- 
posed under the first proposition. 

II. As a general thing, human government must he 
suimitted to, when it oppresses and injures us. Here 
I am aware that we come upon more debateable, or at 
least upon more debated ground. There are those 
who will differ from the proposition just laid down, in 
opposite directions ; which fact may afford some pre- 
sumptive evidence, perhaps, of its essential correct- 
ness. Some will assert that the moment government 
transcends its lawful boundaries a single step, it loses 
all authority, ceases to impose the obligation of obe- 



24 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 

dience upon its subjects, and may be violently resisted. 
In what sense these words convey a truth, will here- 
after be declared. Suffice it to say for the present, 
that they require limitation, and a careful discrim- 
ination of cases, according to principles which will 
be soon pointed out. Others boldly declare, that gov- 
ernment must be obeyed in all cases, by individuals 
and by communities, whatever may be its require- 
ments, and however oppressive and ruinous its de- 
mands. Thus we have the two extremes of unlimited 
passive obedience, and active, violent resistance, in 
every case of injustice. My position accords with 
neither ; and before proceeding to argue the matter, it 
may be well to offer a word or two of explanation. 
Mark well the case supposed, since every thing de- 
pends upon a clear conception of the circumstances in 
which we are hypothetically called to act. It is not 
now asserted that the government requires any act to 
be put forth hy us which is oppressive and injurious to 
others ; but we are supposed to be in a passive or 
recipient position, and the results are such as particu- 
larly affect us as individuals, and that physically 
(including body and mind) rather than morally. Our 
rights are abridged, our privileges are curtailed, our 
property is seized, or our happiness is in some way 
impaired. The question is, What shall we do? Re- 
sist these oppressive and unjust enactments by open 
violence ? I answer as a general thing, with excep- 
tions to be hereafter noticed. No. If we cannot or 
choose not to escape from the sphere of their operation, 



C0-\SC1E.\CE AND LAW. 25 

we must quietly submit and take the consequences. 
Submit is the word which 1 have chosen, not approve, 
or commend. We both may and should disapprove 
of unjust laws, whether they operate upon ourselves 
or others. When the government oppresses and injures 
us, we have a right to condemn its procedure, and to 
enlist the sympathies and friendly aid of our fellow- 
citizens. But except in certain rare instances, which 
need not affect the general rule, we must not offer 
violent resistance. If, notwithstanding our remon- 
strance, our prayers and our tears, the officers of law 
proceed to enforce its severe edicts, and to bring upon 
us loss and suffering, we must leave the case to God, 
and submit to the unrighteous exaction or infliction. 
Several reasons may be given for such a course. 

1. It is desirable, in order to sustain a reverence for 
law in the community. We have already seen that 
law is the ligament which binds society together ; that 
without it, men become barbarous and vicious; that 
upon its sanctity the welfare of all depends ; and that 
even a very bad government is better than none. 
Hence it is all-important to preserve a reverence for it 
in the minds of the people, lest right be prostrated and 
anarchy prevail. The moment the authority of the 
government is despised, the foundation of social order 
and happiness is shaken ; when that authority is sub- 
verted, the interests of society perish. While this is 
true under every government, it is especially so where 
republicanism exists. From the very nature of popu- 
lar institutions, their safety and perpetuity depend 



26 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 

upon the reverence which the people shall entertain 
for the majesty and supremacy of law. Under a des- 
potism or a monarchy, the government may sustain 
itself by the strong hand of power, by resorting to a 
standing army ; but in a republic, where tlie people 
make the laws, and where their enforcement depends 
upon the popular will, they are a dead letter, unless 
the people have the highest regard for civil govern- 
ment as clothed with divine authority, and as the 
guardian angel of their liberties. This alone can 
restrain popular passion, prevent strong excitement 
from leading to riots and rebellion, and secure perma- 
nent and just legislation. In any case, therefore, the 
evils of oppression are far preferable to those of an- 
archy ; while in a republic much may well be borne 
rather than by contempt of law endanger the bless- 
ings which are connected with free institutions. It is 
seldom that the injuries inflicted by government are 
equal to the advantages which it confers; so that 
while we may find much to condemn, there may be 
more to approve. Thus the law still has a hold upon 
us, both in its relation to us individually, and in its 
bearing upon the great interests of the community. 
Though oppressive in some of its particulars, and thus 
falsifying its own pretensions, it is our safeguard and 
that of others in its general influence, and is conse- 
quently so far our benefactor and the representative 
of God.* We ought to endure great inconveniences, 

* Candor compels me to admit, that the reasoning in this pas- 
sage cannot apply to fugitive slaves who are sought to be arrested 



CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 27 

hardships, losses, and suffering, rather than by open 
resistance to weaken the reverence of ourselves or of 
our fellow-citizens towards law as the embodiment of 
necessary civil power. 

2. Regard for the safety of our own persons and for 
the peace of the community, should lead us to avoid 
collision with such laws. Resistance on the part of 
individuals seldom eventuates in any thing save loss 
greater than that sought to be avoided. The civil 
authorities cannot be repulsed by our single arm, or 
by the combined force of a few sympathizing friends ; 
so that opposition only entails defeat and added suffer- 
ing, while it occasions scenes of strife, and perhaps of 
bloodshed, in a peaceful community, by which evil 
passions are aroused, and those who should dwell in 
amity are arrayed in mutual hostility. As the whole 
question is, in the case now supposed, one of personal 
inconvenience and loss, it is proper to weigh the con- 
sequences, and not to rush from one class of evils to 
others still more formidable, in which we shall proba- 
bly involve our friends also. It is better to obey, even 
when we suffer wrong, than to disobey, and only 
increase our difficulties. 

3. Something is due also by Christians to the repu- 

and returned to bondage according to our unchristian laws. It 
would be difficult to show that they owe any thing to a govern- 
ment which, so far from protecting them, invades their dearest 
rights, and even reduces them to the condition of chattels. If 
they forbear violent resistance, the obligation of meek submission 
must be based on some other principle. 



28 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 

tation of religion. The spirit of sacrifice and self- 
denial, as it is emphatically inculcated in Scripture, so 
should it be eminently characteristic of the people of 
God. They should be willing to endure much incon- 
venience and suffering from unwise and unjust laws, 
rather than assume a position which will reflect dis- 
credit upon their profession and the cause which they 
hold dear. They should be known as law-abiding 
men up to the utmost limits of conscience. No con- 
siderations of personal expense or loss should lead 
Christians to adopt a course which will needlessly 
occasion the wicked to speak ill of religion, by placing 
its advocates in the attitude of resistance to govern- 
ment. There should be such a measure of caution 
and self-control as will avoid even the appearance of 
faction, sedition, or turbulence. It may be difficult 
for human nature to cherish sufficient meekness to 
perform acts which are a source of inconvenience, and 
even of pain and loss, or to submit to legal exactions 
which are without a shadow of justice; but grace 
should teach us to make joyful and tearless sacrifices 
for the honor of Christ. Hence Peter said, "For this 
is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God 
endure grief, suflTering wrongfully." 

4. There can be but little excuse of any kind for a 
refusal to obey the class of laws now under consider- 
ation, in a country which possesses a constitutional 
government and allows of popular legislation. In such 
a land, laws grossly unjust will nearly always clash 
with the Constitution, and will thus, on a legal trial, 



CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 29 

be judicially pronounced null and void. The object of 
a Constitution is, to affirm the fundamental rights of 
the people collectively and as individuals, and to throw 
around them such safeguards as will protect them 
from the encroachments of the legislature and the 
usurpations of the executive. The judiciary is estah- 
lished for the express purpose of deciding whether the 
laws which are enacted from time to time are in con- 
formity with the Constitution. Hence, where such 
institutions exist, if a law seriously interferes with our 
rights, it can hardly fail to clash with some consti- 
tutional provision. If this be the case, we need only 
dispute its authority in a legal way before the proper 
court, and the judge will rule that it cannot hold, 
being contrary to the supreme and organic law of the 
land. If this decision cannot be secured, or if the law 
complained of be simply unwise and inconvenient, an 
appeal lies open to the people to send such represent- 
atives to the legislative body as will modify or repeal 
it. These are peaceful and legitimate modes of pro- 
cedure, by which we may seek protection without dis- 
turbing the public order, abating reverence for law, 
or doing aught to weaken the foundations of civil gov- 
ernment. A persevering use of them can hardly fail 
to be crowned with success in the end. 

5. It is proper here to adduce the example of the 
Savior, the apostles, and other good men, in support 
of the views presented. They practised on the prin- 
ciple of non-resistance and passive obedience to the 
acts of government which oppressed them as individu- 



30 CONSCIENCE ANC LAW. 

als. When the officers came to arrest Jesus, though 
he was guilty of no crime, he did not resist, but yielded 
himself into their hands. When Peter drew a sword 
against the authorities, Jesus bade him put it up, and 
healed the man who had been wounded, declaring that 
they who took the sword should perish with the sword ; 
or in other words, that when individuals sought to 
defend their rights by physical force against govern- 
ment, the result would be their own ruin. This was 
the course also of the apostles and primitive Christians. 
They were grossly injured and persecuted ; they were 
plundered, assaulted, beaten, imprisoned, and put to 
death ; but they offered no violent resistance. When 
they could escape from their oppressors by flight, they 
did so; but if they were seized, they submitted pa- 
tiently to the inflictions of their enemies. This they 
did both as a matter of policy and of conscience, that 
they might exhibit the power of religion, and deprive 
their adversaries of any occasion to reproach the gospel. 

Having thus set forth, as briefly as possible, our 
duty in the circumstances supposed, a word or two 
may be allowed with reference to the exceptions to 
which allusion was made. I know not as any excep- 
tions should be conceded in the case of individuals 
merely. It appears to me that as such they are bound 
by the rule which has been laid down. But where 
the government is so conducted as to oppress the whole 
community by the subversion of their fundamental 
rights ; where no peaceful remonstrance and opposi- 



CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 31 

tion is of avail or can be relied on ; where, in short, 
the government wholly or chiefly neglects the end for 
which it was ordained of God and established by the 
people, and becomes the enemy and destroyer of the 
very interests which it was intended to preserve and 
promote ; then it is the right and duty of the people, 
as a community or nation, to rise in arms, to repel force 
by force, and to change the rulers, alter the form of 
government, or enforce a modification of law, as they 
shall see needful. In order, however, to make the 
movement legitimate, even in such an extremity, 
there must be some reasonable prospect of success to 
warrant the undertaking ; since it were both unwise 
and wrong to waste treasure and blood, and to incur 
all the terrible evils of civil war, without a rational 
expectation of commensurate good. There must be 
something more than the fierce expression of rage and 
despair; even a hope of establishing a just and com- 
petent government. This is what has been termed the 
rifj-ht of revolution, and was exercised by our own fore- 
fathers. It is not condemned by the passages cited 
from the New Testament ; for they were addressed to 
individuals in their private capacity, in which, as we 
have seen, submission is the proper course. Besides, 
even those injunctions of obedience seem to be based, 
to some extent, on the supposition that the government 
is exercising its just powers for right ends. Notice 
the reasoning of Paul. When urging subjection to 
rulers, he says, " For rulers are not a terror to good 
works, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid 



32 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 

of the power? do that which is good, and thou shalt 
have praise of the same ; for he is the minister of God 
to thee for good." Now suppose that all this is 
reversed as a matter of fact; that the ruler becomes a 
terror to good works instead of evil ; that by the prac- 
tice of right blame is secured instead of praise ; and 
that instead of being the minister of God to us for good, 
the ruler proves to be the minister of the devil for evil. 
How can the argument of the apostle apply ? In no 
way ; for the very premises on which it rests are 
swept away. So also Peter bases his command of 
obedience to governors on the fact that they are sent 
"for the punishment of evil-doers, and for the praise 
of them that do well." But if evil-doers are rewarded, 
and the well-doers are punished, what becomes of the 
conclusion? It is evident that when the whole char- 
acter of the government is thus changed, and it has 
become apostate to duty and profession, it is proper for 
the community or nation^ as a body, in whom alone 
there can be the means of success, to modify or over- 
throw it and establish another. Let us now attend to 
the last proposition, which claims our careful scrutiny. 

III. When the government requires us to do wrong, 
it must be disoheyed. This I affirm explicitly and 
without qualification, under a solemn sense of duty to 
God and the souls of my readers. The case now sup- 
posed is entirely different from that considered under 
the last proposition. That was where we were re- 
quired to suffer wrong ; this is, where we are required 



CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 33 

to do wrong. Tlie distinction between them is pre- 
cisely that between Stephen as a martyr, and Saul as 
a persecutor. We may often voluntarily suffer, but 
may never 5m; no matter who commands it. This 
is a distinction in the very nature of actions, and is 
carefully maintained throughout the Bible, as we shall 
presently see. If, then, human law commands a wick- 
ed act, the law must be Iroken in its precept, while we 
show our reverence for government by quietly suT}- 
mitting to the penalty. The required act may be one 
of commission or omission, and the one is as wrong as 
the other ; for no government has a right to command 
what God has forbidden, or to forbid what God has 
enjoined. Nor is the case altered, whether the act 
relate to God or our fellow-men. It is as expressly 
required that we should love our neighbor as our- 
selves, as it is that we should love God better than our- 
selves. This simple statement suffices to refute the 
sophistry of an extract from a charge of Judge Mc- 
Lean, which has been extensively published in the 
newspapers ; in which he declares that in matters be- 
tween man and man, "the law, and not conscience, 
constitutes the rule of action ;" while he admits that 
"no earthly power has a right to interpose between a 
man's conscience and his Maker : he has a right, an 
inalienable and absolute right, to worship God accord- 
ing to the dictates of his own conscience : for this he 
alone must answer, and he is entirely free from all 
human restraint to think and act for himself." Does 
the venerable judge imagine that religion consists ot 
3 



34 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 

nothing but icorship? that God requires no acts of 
benevolence to our fellow-men? that law must not 
interfere with one-half of the decalogue, but has a 
perfect right to trample on the other fialf? It cannot 
be ; and yet such is the substance of his argument. 
The world may applaud the sophism ; but how intelli- 
gent Christians can do it, passes my poor comprehension. 
It seems to be the theory of many, that national and 
state laws, and especially the articles of the Federal 
Constitution, are the supreme rule of conduct for all 
who dwell in the land, notwithstanding any conflict 
which may exist between them and the law of God as 
contained in the Scriptures. They claim that our 
duty is to obey the law, whatever it may he, until it is 
repealed ; leaving the responsibility of its rightfulness 
between the government and God. Alas! it is not so 
easy to throw off responsibility upon the government. 
God deals with us individually, and not in masses or 
organically. He has placed the Bible in my hands, 
and commanded me to take it as my sole guide in all 
the relations of life ; and he has done the same with 
each of you. When we stand at his judgment bar, he 
will not say, " United States Government, come forth 
and answer for your deeds! Federal Constitution, 
appear and be judged for your character!" There 
would be nobody to respond, if such a call should be 
made. God deals with nations and governments in 
this world, by providential events. In eternity, he will 
deal with individuals, and call upon you and me to 
stand forth for judgment. Before him will lie the 



CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 35 

volume by which we must be tried. And what will 
it be? The Revised Statutes of Connecticut? the acts 
of Congress ? or the National Constitution ? No ; no : 
but God's statute-book — the Bible. Said Christ, " He 
that rejecteth me and receiveth not my words, hath one 
that judgeth him: tJie word that I have spoken, the 
same shall judge him at the last day.''' 

Where has God declared in the Scriptures, that he 
has constituted human enactments the highest law for 
man on earth? Does he not style himself the "King 
of kings, and the Lord of lords" on purpose that it 
might be understood that he is supreme? Does he 
not declare that rulers are his ministers for the express 
purpose of carrying out his law in the punishment of 
crime and the reward of virtue ; so that they belie 
their office when they venture to enact that which 
is wrong? The Savior has clearly intimated that 
Gassar's claims are not to be allowed to conflict with 
those of God. "Render, therefore, unto Caesar the 
things which are Caesar's; [all the honor and obe- 
dience which are his legitimate due ;] and [as a matter 
of no less consequence, not to be subverted by the 
former] unto God the things that are God's." It would 
indeed be a strange doctrine, that God has resigned 
his throne to civil rulers, and instructed us that his 
law should always give place to that of men, who are 
often both ignorant and wicked. In such case, our 
Bibles are superfluous, and may as well be burned ; 
for the whole of revelation might be summed up in the 
short precept, Obey your rulers in all things. 



86 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 

The truth is simply this : There are three insti- 
tutions which God has ordained — the family, the 
church, and the state. The Bible is the statute-book 
to guide us in our relations to each of these. While 
the child is commanded to obey his parents in the most 
emphatic terms — " in all things," as Paul once expresses 
it yet in another place the limitation is added, "in 
the Lord," to show that parental authority was not 
binding when it ran counter to the divine commands. 
So also Christians are told to reverence ecclesiastical 
authority, and to "obey them that have the rule over 
them," or the proper officers of the church ; but we all 
hold as Protestants, that they are under no obligation 
to obey the church or its officers against their con- 
science; and this is the scriptural doctrine, making 
every man responsible for his individual conduct to 
God, under the guidance of the Bible. The same 
truth must hold equally in the state. We are to obey 
magistrates, or as Peter expresses it, " submit ourselves 
to every ordinance- of man" in all cases, except when 
they require us to do that which is forbidden by the 
law of God. Then we must obey God at all hazards, 
statute-books and constitutions to the contrary not- 
withstanding. That this may be still more evident, let 
me suggest several brief but important considerations. 
1. Such laws not only assail God, but require us to 
do the same. A law which simply oppresses me, 
assails God, because it is contrary to his requirements ; 
but it does not call on me to do any thing which is 
wrong ; and therefore I may comply with it in a spirit 



CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 37 

of self-sacrifice, as explained in a former part of this 
discussion. When, however, the law requires me to do 
a wicked act, it seeks to place me, as well as itself, in 
opposition to God. I become, by compliance, a par- 
ticipator in the sin, and am involved in the consequent 
guilt. Where I have the means of judging, I am 
bound to know the nature of the deed required of me, 
and to decide accordingly. If I would preserve my 
soul unspotted, I must refuse to have any thing to do 
with violations of God's law. 

2. The principle of obedience to such laws involves 
a positive contradiction. We are told that it is our 
solemn duty to obey the law, that God requires it in 
the Bible ; and yet the law commands a thing which 
God has forbidden, or interdicts what God has enjoined ! 
Thus intelligent Christian men are called upon to be- 
lieve that God directs them to disobey himself! that 
he makes his law our rule of conduct, and yet does 
not impose it, but refers us to the antagonistic pre- 
cepts of civil rulers ! that he claims to be omniscient, 
all-wise, and perfectly holy, and has established a law 
which he knows to be the wisest, the best, and the only 
right one, and yet makes it our duty to be guided not 
by it, but by the law which emanates from human 
ignorance and sin, in opposition to his own ! Credit 
this, who can. 

3. The principle of obedience to such laws saps the 
foundation of all morality and religion. If human 
authority can subvert or override the divine in one 
case, it can in another. If we are bound by a consti- 



38 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 

tution or statute to violate one command of the deca- 
logue, we might be similarly bound to violate a second, 
and a third, or the entire ten. If the government must 
be obeyed when it forbids a deed of mercy which God 
enjoins, then it must also be obeyed when it com- 
mands a deed of violence and wrong which God pro- 
hibits. If it must be recognised as the supreme au- 
thority in our relations to our fellow-men, so must it 
also in our relations to God ; for the decalogue covers 
both, and there is as much right for suspending one 
part as the other. Thus the liberty of conscience is 
destroyed, and both morality and religion are made 
the sport of legislative caprice. If the people or their 
rulers are wicked enough to require us, by consti- 
tution or statute, to steal, to commit adultery, to mur- 
der, to blaspheme, or to worship idols, we must forth- 
with comply ! It is of no avail to plead that we are 
not required to do such things and are not likely to be; 
the principle which covers these cases is involved, if 
it be maintained that we are bound by law to do any 
wrong act, in the way of con. mission or omission. 
Such things have been required by law in past ages, 
and might consistently be enjoined again, if human 
law is above conscience and the word of God. It is 
useless to talk any longer of right and wrong; we 
should merely speak of what is legal and illegal. 

4. The doctrine of unqualified obedience is suicidal 
to the conception of all law, human and divine. Many 
appear never to have reflected upon the true basis of 
law and government. They conceive of them as found- 



CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 39 

ed upon mere will and power, both in God and man. 
But this is a most serious mistake. No being, how- 
ever great, has a right to command any thing irre- 
spective of its nature. We cannot conceive of God 
as having a right to enjoin hatred instead of love, or 
falsehood instead of truth. Law in all worlds is 
founded on the eternal and necessary distinction be- 
tween right and wrong, and is simply a declaration 
and enforcement, on the part of the proper authority, 
of what is in the nature of things reasonable and 
right. Flence, if God should proclaim a command to 
hate and to lie, it v/ould not be binding upon the 
conscience ; it would be, in fact, no law. God has 
instituted human government as a part of his own to 
prevent wrong ; and no acts are or can be valid, which 
are contrary to this. Take away the idea that law is 
to be the representative of eternal right and justice, 
and declare it to be the representative of mere will 
and power, and it is stripped of all majesty and 
legitimate authority. Pages might be quoted from 
the most distinguished writers on law to corroborate 
this view, but there is space for only one or two brief 
citations. Says Fortescue, "All laws derive their 
force from the law of nature ; and those which do not, 
are accounted as no law." Blackstone says of this 
natural and eternal law of right, that "it being coeval 
with mankind, and dictated by God himself, is of 
course superior in obligation to any other. It is 
binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all 
times : no human laws are of any validity, if contrary 



40 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 

to this." Says the same high authority, taking mur- 
der as a strong case to show the principles involved, 
"If any human law should allow or enjoin us to 
commit it, we are bound to transgress that human 
law." It is on this ground that the Declaration of 
Independence asserts that certain rights are "un alien- 
able," which they could not be, if human constitutious 
and statutes, of whatever character, are of supreme 
authority, and binding on the conscience. The only 
doctrine that lays a basis for law is that which I 
advocate. To suppose that a person may do as a 
citizen, in opposition to the divine law, what it is 
conceded would be wicked for him to do as a man, 
is to fall into the difficulty of the profane bishop, who 
was also a noble, and who, being rebuked by a peas- 
ant for his profanity, replied that he did not swear as 
a bishop, but as a nobleman: to whom the peasant 
proposed the puzzling inquiry, When God damns the 
nobleman, what will become of the bishop? Thus, 
we might ask those who think that a citizen must do, 
in obedience to human law, what God has forbidden 
and what eternal right condemns. When God punishes 
the man, what will become of the citizen ? It appears, 
then, that the only course by which to honor and 
strengthen law, is the one which I have pointed out — 
to render cheerful obedience to government in the 
exercise of its legitimate functions ; to bear patiently 
with its follies and personal oppressions, submitting 
to inconvenience and suffering rather than to offer 
resistance; and to disobey it when it requires us to 



CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 41 

do wrong, treating its precepts as of no force, but 
enduring quietly its penalties, and leaving our justifi- 
cation to time and to God. Thus it will be perceived 
that we hold the true idea of law sacred, while we 
trample only on its counterfeit. 

5. It is proper that I should add under this pro- 
position, as under the others, that such was the course 
pursued by the holy men of whom we read in Scrip, 
ture and in secular history. They uniformly refused 
compliance with those edicts of human government 
which conflicted with the requirements of God. 
Ahab and Jezebel were the sovereigns of Israel. They 
issued a command that all the prophets of Jehovah 
should be slain ; but Obadiah, so far from aiding in 
the wicked work, secreted a hundred of them in a 
cave, and fed them till the danger was past or they 
could escape to distant parts. Nebuchadnezzar, the 
king of Babylon, made a decree that every man 
should worship the golden image which he had 
erected, under penalty of being cast into a fiery 
furnace for disobedience. Shadrach, Meshach, and 
Abednego, refused to comply with the mandate, and 
submitted to be cast into the furnace, v/here God 
wrought a miracle for their deliverance, to attest his 
approbation of their conduct and to recommend their 
example to others. Darius, the king, in company 
with his council, being the supreme authority, made 
a law in the usual form, that no one should offer a 
prayer for thirty days to any being but himself. 
Daniel deliberatolv violated it, as a wicked enactment. 



42 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 

and then unresistingly allowed himself to be cast into 
the den of lions, which was the prescribed punish- 
ment. Here, again, God testified his approval by a 
miracle, and rescued him from death. The Sanhe- 
drim, which was the Jewish congress, made a law 
that no man should preach the gospel, and having 
called the apostles before them, "commanded them 
not to speak at all, nor teach in the name of Jesus." 
What did the apostles reply ? Did they say, We are 
sorry you have made such law, but since it is so, as 
we are law-abiding citizens, and have a great rever- 
ence for your wisdom, we will observe it? Not they. 
They replied, "Whether it be right in the sight of 
God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge 
ye; for we cannot but speak the things which we 
have seen and heard." They violated the law pub- 
licly and continually, bearing their sufferings patiently 
and without resistance when they were beaten and 
imprisoned, and, after they were released, repeated 
their disobedience. When Paul preaclied in Damas- 
cus after his conversion, orders were issued by the 
governor to arrest him, and all the marshals and 
constables of the city were on the watch to seize the 
apostle ; but the Christians, instead of betraying and 
delivering up the fugitive, aided his escape, and let 
him down over the wall by night in a basket. — See 
also Acts, 18 : 13. Tiie Roman emperors made laws 
commanding the primitive Christians to worship their 
statues and the images of heathen deities, and to com- 
mit other wrong acts ; which they utterly refused to do ; 



CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 43 

but Still, when peaceful escape was impossible, 
allowed themselves to be scourged, fined, imprisoned, 
and put to death without resistance. So also in later 
times, Protestants steadily disobeyed the edicts of 
Romish governments which commanded them to dis- 
obey God, and then yielded themselves to suffering 
and death. Numerous were the laws which the 
Puritans disregarded in England as interfering with 
the requirements of God, and one of the questions 
which was most warmly discussed between them and 
their opponents, was, as to the duty of obeying the 
government in all things. Down to this day the 
Quakers in Great Britain refuse to pay military 
taxes, believing that war is in all cases wrong, and 
also taxes for the support of the established church 
from which they conscientiously dissent; and they 
allow their goods to be seized and sold at public 
auction by the legal officers in consequence. But 1 
need not particularize further. History abounds in 
illustrations proving that the doctrine which I have 
set forth has been that of godly men from the begin- 
ning. 

If it be finally objected, that this view takes away 
a uniform rule of conduct, throws every man upon 
his own conscience, and tends to discord and conflict ; 
I reply, that this is the very objection which Papists 
bring against the kindred doctrine in religion of the 
right of private judgment. There may be incidental 
evils, but they are unspeakably less than those which 
attach to the opposite view. Where there is mind, 



44 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 

there must be freedom, and freedom will of course 
occasion differences of opinion ; but on the plan 
suggested, there will be neither violence nor anarchy. 
If nations will make wicked laws, and endeavor to 
impose them upon men in whom God has placed a 
conscience and to whom he has given a Bible, they 
must expect collision. In proportion as constitutions 
and laws are conformed to right, there will be less 
and less occasion for disobedience. It is to be granted, 
however, that we should be very cautious in deciding 
that a law is contrary to the Word of God, inasmuch 
as important consequences flow from the position 
which we assume. The case ought to be clear and 
unequivocal. Happily, our venerated Constitution 
can be said to violate our conscience in but a single 
exception, at most, and even there it is very doubtful 
if any action is required of private citizens. In con- 
clusion, suffer three practical remarks: 

1. It is well to understand what is implied in an oath 
to support the constitution. It undoubtedly pledges you 
to comply with its provisions in all your action under 
it, it being assumed in such action, that you consider it 
as harmonizing with the law of God ; for it would be 
a horrible impiety, as well as a glaring inconsistency, 
to swear in the name of God and with an appeal to 
him for his judgments in case of deviation, that you 
will do what you know that he forbids. If you 
believe that the Constitution is at war with God, then 
you must refuse to act under the provisions which are 



CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 45 

contradictory to his will. The utmost that good faith 
allows to one who is conscientiously opposed to the 
"duties" required by one or more of its provisions, is, 
to take the oath of allegiance, with the distinct under- 
standing, that if you act at all under it, it will be in 
compliance with it ; but that you intend, in case 
action should be called for in connection with the 
unrighteous part, to resign your place rather than 
comply. You cannot retain your place in office 
under it, and yet refuse at the same time to fulfil 
your oath. To be true to God does not require that 
you should be false to men. Let your oaths and acts 
go together, both being omitted, or, if conscience 
permits, both being assumed. 

2. My readers will be able, in view of the princi- 
ples laid down, to decide what God calls upon them to 
do with reference to the recent Act of Congress res- 
pecting the delivery of fugitive slaves — an act designed 
to " settle" a great moral agitation ; (or in other words, 
to roll back the events of Providence and to defeat the 
divine purposes;) but which has done more to increase 
it than anything which has occurred for many years. 
Happily for the consciences of all parties at the North, 
whatever may be their opinions about slavery, and of 
both sides in the discussion of the subject of this dis- 
course, the new act is as unconstitutional as it is 

* Many of the best lawyers in the country have declared that 
it violates the Constitution in several important particulars, partic- 
ularly in conferring judical power on commissioners, in denying a 
trial by jury, and in suspending the habeas corpus. It is safe 
then to ignore it. 



46 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 

wicked ; it as clearly opposes the fundamental law of 
the land, as it does that of God : though were the 
former fact otherwise, the direction of duty would be 
the same. After our full consideration of the general 
principles involved, it will be needless to do more than 
state, without argument, the course which should be 
pursued with reference to this specific law. (1) Offer 
to it no violent resistance : make no attempt to defend 
or rescue the alleged fugitive by physical /orce. (2) 
Render it no aid, lest you participate in the iniquity : 
if you are called upon by the marshal to assist in the 
apprehension or detention of the slave, lift not a finger, 
stir not a foot. (3) If possible, aid the victim in a 
quiet and peaceable escape, as Obadiah did the 
prophets, and as the disciples in Damascus did Paul. 
(4) Take legal measures to have the constitutionality 
of the act tested before a judicial tribunal, by secur- 
ing the issue of a suit of habeas corpus. (5) Labor 
incessantly by voice, pert, press, and vote, for its speedy 
repeal. (6) Submit unresistingly to any penalties 
which may be laid upon you for such obedience to 
God. Act thus, and let God take care of the conse- 
quences. Be like the "honest man" portrayed by 
Bishop Hall, " whose conscience overrules his provi- 
dence (worldly prudence), so as in all things, good or 
ill, he respects the nature of the actions, not the sequel : 
if he see what he must do, let God see what shall 
follow." 

S. Finally, in all your civil relations, strive to honor 
God and to promote truth and right. Remember that 



CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 47 

liuiiiaii government, even in the happy and prosperous 
form of our American Union, is a means and not an 
end ; that the end is the promotion of industry, intelli- 
gence, and virtue, by the defence of the rights and 
happiness of all without partiality, which is the true 
idea of democracy ; and that the end is unspeakably 
more valuable than the means, and must be preserved 
at all hazards, though the particular means should fail 
and perish. Let your views be expansive and com- 
prehensive, your principles scriptural and inflexible, 
and your conduct such as will endure the scrutiny of 
the last day. While you are careful to "render unto 
Ceesar the things which are Caesar's," see to it, as you 
value your interests for time and eternity, that you do 
not fail likewise, to "render unto God the things that 
are God's." 



As the object of the preceding essay was to settle principles 
rather than to discuss existing facts, but a small space was 
devoted to the consideration of the law recently enacted by 
Congress for the capture of fugitive slaves. To supply that defi- 
ciency in part, a portion of three articles is annexed, written by 
the author as editorials in the columns of the N. E. Religious 
Herald, published at Hartford, Ct. 

THE FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 

Do our readers understand the depth of infamy to 
which their national legislators descended during the 
late session of Congress? Are they aware that Con- 
gress not only surrendered to Texas thousands of 



48 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 

square miles to which she had not the shadow of a just 
title, paying besides ten millions of dollars for not 
conceding a still larger territory ; not only organized 
New Mexico and Utah without any protection against 
slavery, and declared that they should hereafter be 
admitted as free or slave states, as they might choose ; 
but also enacted a new and stringent law to aid the 
recapture of fugitives from slavery? Have they read 
the provisions of the bill, which are enough to make a 
freeman's blood boil within him? If not, we intend 
to furnish a statement of its substance, and then to 
free our minds upon the whole subject, as an Ameri- 
can and a Christian of right may do. 

The bill contains ten sections, of which the first 
four relate to the appointment and action of United 
States Commissioners, who shall take cognizance of 
such cases, and who are to be designated by certain 
courts in sufficient number "to afford reasonable 
facilities to reclaim fugitives from labor." — The fifth 
section makes it the duty of all marshals and deputy 
marshals to execute all warrants issued in pursuance 
of this bill, under a penalty of 07ie thousand dollars 
for refusal, and a like j^enalty in case the fugitive 
escape while in his custody, " whether with or without 
the assent of such marshal or his deputy?" It is 
furthermore provided, that the persons appointed to 
execute the process, shall, in case of an attempt to 
resist, "summon and call to their aid the bystanders 
or posse comitatas of the proper county." The sixth 
section describes the way in which the case is to be 



CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 49 

brought before the commissioner by affidavit or other- 
wise, who shall "hear and determine the case of such 
claimant in a summary manner," and shall deliver the 
identified fugitive to his master in legal form ; it being 
provided that "in no trial or hearing under this act 
shall the testimony of such alleged fugitive be admitted 
in evidence !" The seventh section crowns the climax 
of sin, by declaring that whoever hinders the arrest of 
a fugitive, attempts a rescue, or assists in his escape 
from the claimant, after notice of the facts, "shall be 
subject to a fine not exceeding a thousand dollars and 
imprisonment not exceeding six months," and in addU 
Hon, shall forfeit and pay a thousand dollars to the 
owner of the slave so lost ! Section eight prescribes 
the pay (the devil must have his due and can't afford 
to work for nothing, and sinful work ought to be paid 
well, to make up for the wear and tear of conscience 
and for incidentals in the next world,) which commis- 
sioners, and other officers, and agents shall have; 
wherein it is provided that the commissioner shall have 
ten dollars if he decides against the fugitive, and but 
five if he decides in his favor ! Section nine author- 
izes the employment of a sufficient number of persons 
to prevent a rescue, should one be feared. The tenth 
and last section provides for the taking a legal descrip- 
tion, &;c., of the person claimed, in the State from 
which he escapes, to be used as conclusive evidence 
in the place where he may be arrested. 

And this is a specimen of legislation in the nine- 
teenth century, not by the Czar of Russia, not by the 



50 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 

Sultan of Turkey, not by the Bey of Tunis, not by 
the assembled chiefs of the Fejee Islands, but by the 
Congress of the United States of America, sitting at 
Washington ! Let not this law be falsely described 
in succeeding history as the work of a Mohammedan, 
heathen, or even Romish body ; for it was the act of a 
professedly Christian and Protestant Congress, partici- 
pated in by the descendants of Puritans, and done 
after due prayer by the official chaplains! It is 
enough to reanimate the dust of old Isaiah, that stern 
reprover of wrong, and to make him once more lift 
up his voice in the words that rang in the ears of 
ancient oppressors, " Woe unto them that decree un- 
righteous decrees, and that write grievousness which 
they have prescribed ; to turn aside the needy from 
judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of 
my people." How shall we hold up our head before 
the nations of Europe ; we, the hypocritical advocates 
o^ freedom? A few months since we were applaud- 
ing Turkey for refusing to deliver up the fugitive 
Hungarians to the tender mercies of Austria and 
Russia; and now our Congress enacts, and the Presi- 
dent from the free North coincides, that the panting 
slave shall be seized on the way to freedom, and 
surrendered to his enraged master! What a popular 
man Haynau would be in this country! Plow our 
President, with the Cabinet and the two houses of 
Congress, would haste to honor the oppressor of Hun- 
gary, whom even London has vomited out ! How the 
woman-whippers at the South would grasp by the 



CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 51 

hand the Austrian butcher, who scourged the Hunga- 
rian females in the streets of Pesth ! Who is not 
proud of being an American ; of dwelling in a land 
where men are bought and sold like swine in the pens, 
and where the Christian who ventures to aid the 
fugitive from bondage is fined two thousand dollars 
and imprisoned six months? 

But the Constitution requires such a law, and, how- 
ever we may regret it, nothing remains but to carry- 
out its provisions — this is the defence set up by the 
Northern apologists for the act. In reply we might 
allege many things. In the language of Mr. Seward, 
"There is a law higher than the Constitution." What 
is the Constitution, that it should be set up as the 
defence of wrong? Should it require idolatry as one 
of its "compromises," does it follow that we must 
break the second commandment? And why not the 
second as well as the eighth, or as well as the spirit 
which pervades the whole ? If the Constitution could 
not make it obligatory to worship idols, to profane the 
divine name, to break the Sabbath, or to commit 
adultery^ how can it render us guiltless if we break 
any other part of the divine law? Has God made a 
distinction in his precepts, allowing some to be set 
aside, but requiring others to be kept at all hazards ? — 
Who will dare assert it, or who will venture to claim 
that human governments have the power to legislate 
God's law out of force? — We read in the Bible, 
" Thou shalt not deliver unto his master the servant 
who is escaped unto thee; he shall dwell with thee 



52 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 

even among you, in that place which he shall choose, 
\n one of thy gates, where it liketh him best : thou 
ihalt not oppress him." In the face of this precept, 
which in its whole spirit is applicable to such cases 
as we are considering, suppose the Constitution does 
require us to surrender the fugitive slave ; let us 
obey God rather than man. Let us as individuals 
refuse to aid in the recapture or restoration of the 
bondman, and risk the consequences, "taking joyfully 
the spoiling of our goods, knowing in ourselves that 
we have in heaven a better and an enduring sub- 
stance." We are commanded to "remember them 
who are in bonds as hound with them,^^ on the principle 
of doing to others as we would have them do to us. 
Let us place ourselves in the condition of the poor 
fugitive. Let us imagine that we were flying from 
bondage ; from a condition in which we were worked 
without wages our lifelong, were denied a crumb of 
knowledge, and were outraged in all our feelings and 
rights as husband, father, man, and Christian. What 
should we think of the humanity and religion of those 
who should seize us and send us back to our living 
death ? Oh, how agonizingly we should implore 
mercy, and what "a covenant with death and an 
agreement with hell," in that particular, should we 
regard the Constitution and the enactments under it, 
which denied us liberty and all else that men count 
dear ! How would you reason, reader, if your own 
freedom, or that of your wife or child, was at stake ? 
Act, then, for the slave as you would wish others to 



CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 53 

act for you. What does the parable of the Good Sa- 
maritan teach? Is the fugitive slave our "neighbor?" 
Has he emphatically "fallen among thieves," and 
does he now appeal to us for aid? Then let the 
words of him who said " Go, and do thou likewise," 
sound louder in our ears than any opposing human 
enactments, and speed us to the deliverance of the 
oppressed. 

"Angels, in your starry height. 

Having worlds of worlds in view ; 
Spirits in the world of light ! 

How appears such law to you! 
Prudence, in this world of ours. 

Recommends a heart of ice : 
Say, ye loving, heavenly powers. 

Is she virtue ] is she vice ] 

"Going down to Jericho, 

From the sufferer shall we draw. 
Lest, in aiding, we should go 

Counter to the Levite law? 
Shall we take the coward plan. 

Never acting as we feel; 
Helping ne'er a plunder'd man. 

Lest the law should say, ' You steal ?' 

" Heavenly powers, if it be true, 

Help us kindly to belief. 
That to give the robbed his due, 

Is but stealing from the thief: 
Tell us, if the truth be so. 

That Samaritans now ride. 
Going down to Jericho, 

On the priest and Levite side !" 



54 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 

But here we may well ask, Whether the North 
alone is to be held by the Constitution ? The South 
have violated it a thousand times in order to propagate 
slavery; as for instance, in overriding the treaty- 
making power of the Senate in the admission of Texas. 
To-day, in nearly every Southern state, the first par- 
agraph of the second section of Article IV., declaring 
that "the citizens of each state shall be entitled to all 
privileges and immunities of citizens in the several 
states," is a dead letter, and colored citizens from 
the North are imprisoned if setting foot within the 
slate ; while forcible measures are used to prevent any 
appeal being taken to the Supreme Court ! We ask 
again whether slaveholders are to violate the Consti- 
tution at will, while the North are to be bound to its 
last letter? The outrageous conduct of the South in 
violating the contract, has long since freed the North 
from any obligations on that point. 

But we contend that the Constitution does not re- 
quire such a law as has just been passed, but on the 
contrary in several respects forbids it. Two articles 
were plainly intended to give the right of jury-trial in 
every case of importance. This act denies it to the 
fugitive, in the case of all others most demanding it. 
Another article declares that the habeas corpus writ 
shall not be suspended except in time of rebellion and 
invasion. This act expressly forbids its application 
to the fugitive. The article under which fugitives are 
claimed does not require the North to lift a finger to 
seize the fugitive^or aid the master, but simply allows 



CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 55 

the master to capture him. This act requires us to 
become active cooperators in the base work. Con- 
gress had no right to pass such a bill, and the Presi- 
dent should have immediately vetoed it. Its passage 
was owing to the miserably immoral compromise-spirit 
which prevailed with the President, the Cabinet, and 
Congress ; by which the rights of the North and the 
interests of freedom were sold out for the admission of 
California, and for a transitory, false and hollow peace. 
Let the demand go forth in indignant tones from the 
whole North for the repeal of this infamous act, and 
in the meanwhile let it be counted a dead letter. 
Already several fugitives have been sent back under 
its provisions, and the poor colored men are fleeing for 
their lives in all parts of the country. Those who 
have dwelt for years in our midst, are forced to hide 
and escape like criminals, "though men of worth and 
piety. It sends the blood coursing like fire through 
our veins to see such scenes in this land of freedom. 
We own no allegiance to such a law, and whoever 
else may regard it, we shall treat it as a nullity as far 
as possible. Men of New England, it is time that the 
slaveholder was made to know that this is no hunting- 
ground for him — that we shall tolerate no blood-hounds, 
human or canine, on this free soil. If the attempt is 
made to enforce the provisions of this bill, it will lead 
to bloodshed in some parts of our land ; but we hope 
that such a unanimous feeling of indignation will be 
exhibited by the North, as will suffice to shame the 
oppressor from the pursuit of his victim. 



56 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 

THE FUGITIVE LAW AGAIN, 

Last week we gave a summary of the barbarous law 
which our Christian and republican Congress have 
just enacted for the capture of fugitive slaves, and 
expressed our sentiments with reference to its consti- 
tutionality, and especially with regard to its morality. 
That this particular law is unconstitutional, appears 
clearly from its denial of the privilege of the writ of 
habeas corpus, from its subversion of the right of trial 
by jury, and from its conferring judicial authority upon 
persons not recognised as clothed with such power by 
the Constitution. That any law requiring the surren- 
der of the fugitive is immoral and wrong, and there- 
fore not to be obeyed, is evident from the specific re- 
quirements of the Bible to the contrary, from its con- 
trariety to the compassion and benevolence every 
where enjoined in the Scriptures, from its odiousness 
to the natural sympathies of every freeman, and from 
the fact that as a nation we refuse to surrender those 
who flee from the oppression of the old world. 

There are several minor points, however, to which 
we did not draw particular attention last week, which 
ought not to be passed over in silence. We desire our 
readers to reflect upon the atrocious provisions which 
we shall name, and which are among the mere inci- 
dentals of the bill. It is provided that the most inter- 
ested testimony shall be received against the person 
claimed as a slave, while his own testimony shall be 
utterly excluded! Could ranker injustice be pre- 



CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 57 

scribed? A man claims a negro as having been his 
slave. If he can obtain a decision in favor of his 
claim, it wiU be a thousand dollars in his pocket. He 
is allowed to come in and assert his ownership, and to 
bring his sons, his paid agents, and other equally- 
interested persons, as corroborative witnesses. On 
the other hand, the man whose liberty is at stake must 
remain silent ! Not the simplest statement of fact may 
issue from his lips! Is this equal and impartial jus- 
tice, or cruel and proscriptive oppression ? 

But this is not enough to satisfy our Christian legis- 
lators. After providing for such an amount of ex 
parte testimony as almost necessarily decides the case 
against the negro, to " make assurance doubly sure," 
and to leave no possible chance for his escape, they 
proceed to bribe the judge! This charge has a harsh 
sound, but our readers shall pronounce their own ver- 
dict when they learn the facts. The law declares that 
if the commissioner decides in favor of the negro, he 
shall have five dollars for his trouble ; but if he de- 
cides in favor of the claimant, he shall have ten dollars ! 
What shall we call such a provision, which makes a 
direct offer of five dollars to the commissioner to induce 
him to favor the pretended master? The English 
language does not possess terms of condemnation suf- 
ficiently emphatic, and we leave the fact to speak for 
itself, and to announce its own blackness. 

Another item is, that the expenses incurred in cap- 
turing a fugitive are to be paid out of the treasury of 



58 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. ^ 

the United States!* Can any mortal tell wliy this 
peculiar privilege is conferred upon slave property? 
If a man loses his horse, he may search after him and 
catch him at his own expense ; but if he loses his 
slave, the government pays the bills. Verily, slavery 
is a "peculiar institution," and we have very peculiar 
legislators. Northerners have to endure the odium 
of belonging to a slaveholding nation, are forced to 
accommodate slavery in all their legislation and in the 
distribution of the offices, are dragged into unjust and 
expensive wars at the dictation of the same power, 
are required to stand still and see the Constitution 
violated whenever it pleases their Southern masters, 
are turned into hunters of flying men and women, and 
are then coolly compelled to pay the cost ! Oh patient, 
long-suffering race ! Let us hasten to take our proper 
place in natural history with the class called by the 
naturalists pachy-dermala, i.e., thick-skinned; or let' 
us with our long-eared brother of old, meekly reply, 
when our chivalrous rider smites us, "Are we not 
thine ass upon which thou hast ridden ever since we 
were thine!" 

We know that at the North we have many who 
are very conservative. God help them, but it is a 
singular fancy to be conservative of insults. They 
probably store away in their cabinets, among their 
most precious treasures, the boot which on some 
memorable occasion has kicked them out of a house. 

* The recent ease in New York city cost the nation seventy- 
one dollars. 



CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 59 

They are as conservative as the whipped spaniel 
which licks the hand that struck it. What is it to 
them that slaveholders compel them to serve in the 
most menial offices, and to do work which ignores 
God and conscience? They will stand by their 
Southern brethren and the glorious Union, and oppose 
all fanatics; for did Herod and Pilate ever fail to be 
friends when there was a Jesus to crucify ? For our- 
selves, we are radically opposed to meanness and sin. 
And this is a part of the system of measures by 
which our modern Solons thought to "settle" the 
slavery question! Why, it is a fire-brand thrown 
into the magazine. If there is any one point in the 
whole range of anti-slavery truth, on which the North 
approaches unanimity, it is the right of the fugitive 
slave to his hard-earned liberty; and many of the 
slaveholders are more than half of our opinion. Said 
one of them to a friend of ours in Nev/ York city, a 
few years since, "If I thought I had a slave on my 
plantation who wouldnH run away when he had the 
chance, I'd flog him." We see through the North 
the poor fugitives starting for Canada, to find under a 
monarchy the rights denied by a republic. Our 
neighbors, our fellow-citizens, our brother Christians, 
men who have dwelt near us for years, honored for 
their industry and loved for their piety, are fleeing as 
for their lives, or are passing through our streets 
armed with the deadly revolver. Already one man, 
respected by all who knew him, and a member of the 
Methodist church, has been seized in New York city, 



60 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 

and without opportunity to bid farewell to his wife 
and children, was hurried away to Baltimore to what 
would have been hopeless bondage, had not his friends 
ransomed him at the expense of eight hundred dollars. 
And it is expected that these things will "^e/iZe" the 
slavery agitation ! As well expect the fierce winds 
to calm the agitated ocean. We warn the South that 
the freemen of the North disown the miserable com- 
promise of their treacherous representatives, and that 
if this atrocious law be pressed, there will be none 
but abolitionists this side of Mason and Dixon's line. 
The work of conversion to anti-slavery principles and 
measures is fast going on — a few more auxiliaries 
will complete it for ever. — Think not, above all, that 
New England will tamely submit to become a 
hunting-ground for the slaveholder. 

" Oh, no ; methinks from all her wild, green mountains — 
From valleys where her slumbering fathers lie — 
From her blue rivers and her welling fountains, 

And clear, cold sky — 

" From her rough coast, and isles, which hungry Ocean 
Gnaws with his surges — from the fisher's skiff. 
With white sail swaying to the billows' motion 

Round rock and clifT — 

** From the free fireside of her unbought farmer — 
From her free laborer at his loom and wheel — 
From the brown smith-shop, where, beneath the hammer. 

Rings the red tieel — 



CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 61 

" From each and all, if God hath not forsaken 
Our land, and left us to an evil choice, 
Loud as the summer thunderbolt shall waken 

A people's voice! 

" Startling and stern! the northern winds shall bear it 
Over Potomac's to St. Mary's wave ; 
And buried Freedom shall awake to hear it 

Within her grave." 



THE HABEAS CORPUS. 

Does the recent fugitive act impugn the Constitution 
with respect to the habeas corpus? The opinion of 
Mr. Crittenden, the Attorney-General, has been con- 
sidered as establishing the negative. We object to 
such a view, 1. Because the opinion of an attorney- 
general is not an authoritative exposition like that of 
the Supreme Court, but may be and is disputed on 
various points every day. 2. Because equally good 
lawyers have decided the other way. 3. Because 
Mr. C. is of the opposite school to strict construe- 
tionists and of the genuine Federal tendency, and 
could hardly be brought to believe that an act of 
Congress could be unconstitutional. 4. Because Mr. 
C. is in favor of the compromise of which this law 
was a part, and is not therefore an impartial judge. 
His opinion as a member of the present Cabinet is 
really worth less than if he were not the Attorney- 



62 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 

General. 5. Because he is a slaveholder, and there- 
fore directly interested in maintaining the law; and 
especially, 6. Because his reasons are no reasons. 
He says that the bill does not mention the habeas 
corpus. Certainly not. Would the framers be such 
fools as to suspend the writ by name? Who ever 
knew an article of the Constitution violated avowedly ? 
His next argument is, that the bill does not suspend 
it, because the Constitution forbids suspension ! Was 
ever such reasoning heard before ? He assumes the 
very point to be proved, by declaring it impossible; 
as though Congress had never passed and never could 
pass an unconstitutional act. A thief might as well 
plead that he had not stolen because the law forbids 
theft. The third and last reason of Mr. C. is merely 
an assertion that the provisions of the bill do not 
interfere with the habeas corpus, which he undertakes 
to sustain by arguing quite a different point, and 
showing that the habeas corpus could not discharge a 
fugitive ! That may be true, but what has it to do 
with the question whether the law permits the writ to 
be used for any purpose in such a case ? 

And now for our reasons for believing that the law 
does suspend the writ of habeas corpus. 1. Its lan- 
guage is clear. The certificate given to the claimant 
"shall prevent all molestation o^ said person or persons 
by any process issued by any court, judge, magistrate, 
or other person whomsoever." The defenders of the 
law have never pretended to show what other process 
is referred to but the habeas corpus. None other is 



CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 63 

possible or could have been meant. The law then 
says, that the habeas corpus when issued shall not be 
allowed to '•'•molest''' the claimant. Does "molest" 
mean merely to discharge the fugitive ? That would 
be a narrow signification of the word. It means to 
trouble, hinder, delay, or impede the claimant — ^just 
what the habeas corpus would assuredly do, as all 
confess. The bill did not simply mean, (for it does 
not say so,) that the habeas corpus may indeed be 
served and must be heeded, but that it shall have 
no power to discharge the fugitive when the case 
comes to be examined. No one claims, under ordinary 
views of the Constitution, that the writ could do any 
thing more than to inquire whether the man was held 
under any law. 

2. This is yet more evident when we notice for 
vjlial this clause was substituted. The original bill on 
this subject, on which the present one was based, was 
introduced by Mr. Butler, with amendments by Mr. 
Mason. It is in substance the same as the present, but 
in the connection now under discussion, used this lan- 
guage : "which certificate shall be a sufficient war- 
rant for taking and removing such fugitive from service 
or labor to the State or Territory from which he or she 
fled." This allows the habeas corpus, but declares 
tliat the showing the certificate shall be sufficient to 
justify the claimant when the case is examined under 
it. If this was all that was and is desired, why were 
not these words retained? Why were they stricken 
out, and the clause substituted which says the certifi- 



64 CONSCIENCE AND LAW. 

cate " shall prevent all molestation . . . hy any process 
issued by any court," &c. ? It is plain that the slave- 
holders made a bold attempt to crush the legal rights 
of the fugitives. 

3. The same thing is clear from the liaUlities 
otherwise pertaining to such case. If the habeas cor- 
pus can be used in the case of fugitive slaves after the 
claimant has received his certificate, then the master 
may be stopped by it in every state, if not in every 
county and town through which he passes; thus cre- 
ating trouble, expense, and liability to lose his slave by 
rescue or escape. It was to guard against this, that 
the clause in question was inserted ; that the master 
might not be '•''molested by any process issued by any 
court," &c. 

4. The actual facts of the last ten years confirm this 
view. Slaveholders have been " molested" repeatedly 
by the issuing of the writ of habeas corpus as they 
were carrying back their victim, and in consequence 
of it have sometimes lost him. It was to prevent such 
occurrences in the future that this law was enacted. 

Who, then, that studies the words of the law and the 
circumstances in which it was passed, camdoubt what 
it meant? It meant to deny the slave the benefit of 
the habeas corpus, it being supposed that the country 
would endure the denial of the right to the black man, 
he being an exception to all constitutional provisions ! 
* * # * # 

^ vF ^ ifF vF 

THE END. 

54 W 














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